Saturday, December 31, 2011

After all this time, I can't believe we haven't run out of titles yet, but believe it or not, 2012 might just be the weirdest set yet, and to give you a taste of what I'm talking about, let's usher out the old, and in with the even older, a relatively obscure flick from 1953, with the very cool name, "Port Sinister!"

So you got to figure, it's 1953, kind of a transition period for horror and sci-fi flicks trying to break away from Universal Frankenstein and Dracula in some new form of terror. Sometimes it didn't really work all that great! In theory or legend, it seems there's a mysterious sunken island place called Port Royale, that resurfaces every so many years that has hidden pirate booty on it!

As I finished writing this, I just read this news article, some 58 years later, I don't know if they'll find any pirates's booty or giant crabs, but a new island is forming right now as we speak, very similar to the concept of Port Royale, and you can read all about it right HERE!!! Freakin' Amazing!!

James Warren is Tony Ferris, the scientist who predicts Port Royale's next appearance, and he's looking for a backer! James wasn't really that familiar of a face to me, but with credits like "Ding Dong Williams" and "Slightly Dangerous," it's no wonder! It turned out that James had quite another talent, and after he finished acting, he turned to painting, and did quite well with it!

Lynne Roberts is Joan Hunter, the skeptical doctor who is forced to go along to find out if it's true or not! Lynne's career went back all the way to 1936, and included stuff like "Circus Girl," "The Mysterious Miss X," "The Bride Wore Crutches," and "The Phantom Speaks!"

The bad guys catch wind of the whole situation and give Tony a big headache, so that he misses the boat!

Then they have to explain the whole cock and bull story to Dr. Hunter, so she alone sets off to sea with them!

The marvelous Marjorie Stapp has a small role as the technician who tells Tony Ferris where he might just be able to find a guy who is crazy enough to fly him out to the general area where he thinks Port Royale is set to surface! Marjorie went on to be in some awesome flicks like "Indestructible Man," "The Werewolf," "Kronos," and "The Monster That Challenged The World!"

The iconic House Peters Jr. is the drunken pilot without a license who is the guy to get the job done. How's House for a cool name? It's even cooler that he's House Jr. His only regret after running out of gas is that he didn't bring more booze! If you're old enough to remember the Mr. Clean TV commercials of the 60's, you recognize House as the guy who played the immortal bald musclehead! Back in 1936, House was a Shark Man in the "Flash Gordon" series, and in 1949 he was Henchman Earl in the "Batman and Robin" serials! He's got a ton of great credits like "King Of The Rocket Men," "The Day The Earth Stood Still," "Red Planet Mars," "Target Earth," and "Rebel Without A Cause!"

The face that you've seen a zillion times, but probably can't put a name to is none other than William Schallert as Collins! William just might actually be THE hardest working man in show business, and this low-down role might just be the evilest of all his 360 appearances! Where do you start or end with a guy like this? I could devote a whole blog to his body of work. In "Mighty Joe Young, " he was a gas station attendant, he was Dr. Mears in "The Man From Planet X," he was in "Gog," "Them," "Tobar The Great," and "The Incredible Shrinking Man!" He was on "Space Patrol" and "The Twilight Zone," and he had the recurring role as Mr. Leander Pomfritt in 24 episodes of "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis," and was also in 104 episodes of the Patty Duke Show, and that's all only up to 1966! William is still kickin' and was still doing stuff on TV as of this year! Standing ovation, please!!

Paul Cavanagh is the other evil bastard John Kolvac. Paul was no slacker himself, even though he passed away back in 1964, he still chalked up 148 appearances in such classics as "The Gorilla Man," "The Babe Ruth Story," "The Son Of Dr. Jekyll," "Bride Of The Gorilla," "The Strange Door," "Francis In The Haunted House," and "She-Devil," just to scratch the surface! Kolvac and Collins have just spotted Port Royale for the first time, hence the looks on their faces!

The music for "Port Sinister" was composed by another Dungeon Hero,what a gasser, Albert Glasser!! If you try out our search engine, you'll find Albert's name comes up about 18 times, because of all the Mr. B.I.G. movies he's worked on. For movies that are really about monsters, Albert Glasser was the go-to guy! "Monster From Green Hell," "Earth Vs The Spider," "The Cyclops," "The Amazing Colossal Man," "War Of The Colossal Beast," "Beginning Of The End," and the list goes on and on.

After they go ashore on Port Royale, Collins and John Kolvac get the rest of the crew drunk, so they can go find the treasure for themselves!

Okay, here's a giant crab!!!

Dr. Joan Hunter finds out the hard way that unlike Elvis Costello, this bunch of rogue pirate's aim is anything but true!

This is a very dark print, so I wasn't able to really see the intricacies of the smoking Port Royale set or the fine tuned action of this puppet crab! It's dark, and they don't show them very long, that's the trick!

Tony Ferris and the pilot Jim Garry managed to somehow float directly to Port Royale too. It's like a miracle I tell you! Not the kind of place you want to be standing around with your hands in your pockets!

They manage to rescue Dr. Hunter before the giant puppet crab had it's way with her! Nobody ever seems to be very surprised about anything, but now they have to find a way to get off the island before it goes down again!

Dr. Hunter volunteers to be a decoy!

The chase leads them across a very scary steaming thin lava crust with quicksand underneath it that they have to traverse very carefully! These rogues are all a bunch of cutthroats, so when one goes down, nobody ever volunteers to help! You know that "All for one, and all for one!" kind of deal!

Port Royale goes down for the final count!

Don't bother looking back folks, it's not set to resurface for another 600 years!

Even with that massive array of talent, "Port Sinister" barely manages to sprout wings, but it's still worth checking out! If the movie was half as good as this poster, it would have been great, but unfortunately, the poster is at least 13 times better! Before I forget, Big Thanx to everybody who has contributed to this place in any form, Happy Nuke Year Ya'll!! 2012 should be a gas!!!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's feature is a decent little creepfest filmed at Big Bear Lake and Big Bear Valley in the San Bernardino National Forest. Some of the actors are Ami Dolenz, Seth Green, Alfonso Ribeiro, Peter Scolari and Ron Howard's dad and bro, Rance and Clint!

The music's by Daniel Licht and Christopher L. Stone. Daniel has worked on CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT, SEVERED TIES, INSIDE OUT II, CHILDREN OF THE CORN: THE FINAL SACRIFICE, HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE and the TV movie HENDRIX. Christopher worked on FOREVER AND BEYOND, COVERGIRL, SWORD OF HEAVEN, PHANTASM II and FELIX THE CAT: THE MOVIE. Get this, in 1965 Christopher was the youngest member of ASCAP, having written the score for three motion pictures by the age of 12!

A typical story from the early nineties... Problem teens in Los Angeles join an inner-city wilderness project in an attempt to get back in touch with their priorities, but, when they get to the camp, they begin having problems adjusting to the wild. Local marijuana growers using herbal steroids to accelerate plant growth create mutated ticks because of their leaky delivery system! It actually sounds possible. Alternate titles are INFESTED, C2 - KILLERINSECT and PARASITES.

Seth and Alfonso play Tyler and Darrel, Tyler demonstrates how you can ignite a tick! Alfonso shows off his acting chops by playing a tough guy!! I've become a fan of Seth's lately because of ROBOT CHICKEN!

Wanted posters for marijuana (marihuana) growers hang in the general store.

What a wild career Clint Howard has had! I first remember him from the STAR TREK episode where he played the mini space dude, Balok. He went on to be in these fine films... EAT MY DUST, ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, EVILSPEAK, NIGHT SHIFT, TANGO & CASH, THE ROCKETEER, CARNOSAUR, THE ICE CREAM MAN, BARB WIRE and THE DENTIST 2.

He plays Jarvis, the guy in charge of the 'weed on steroids' project. He's just stepped in his own bear trap and is in an extremely vulnerable position. From there, he notices that some of the oversized tick eggs on the ceiling are starting to drop around him!

After the dog dies of unknown causes, the local vet discovers something quite curious... Tick on a stick!

The thing springs to life and scampers away with the needle still stuck in it!!

Darrel gets infected and rips this one off his chest in disgust!

Here's how the beautiful people deal with things.

Some nice moody blue shots.

I think Jarvis is trying to say... "Crappy new year, everbloody!!"

I just think this is a cool looking scene.

The bad guys join the fun only to get a face full o' tick!

This picture of the living room after the van crashes through the wall would make a teriffic painting!

The electrical wiring starts shorting out, creating a strobe effect, so, I captured the brightest images of Darrel as he splits in half!

DWRAYGER DUNGEON PRESENTS: The Monster Movie Music Manifesto

Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Spy, Super-Hero, JD, Thriller and Noir films, that's what we like, and a recurring theme in a lot of those kinds of movies has always been music! There were rockin' clubs and cafes with cool jukeboxes, teen poolside parties with local bands, sometimes it was a seedy bar with a sleazy torch singer, a beatnik coffeehouse, maybe dancing somewhere in outer space, or some weird tribal ceremony on a cool secluded island with giant monsters running around, and you could count on it that a lot of the time there was smoking and drinking going on. It was a fun time!! A lot of movies also had quirky, swingin', jazzy or rockin' themes or credits, or maybe just some wild Psychotronic elements! We started with the music from 50's & 60's Monster Movies, but we later morphed into the new, bigger and better, Rock and Soul, 70's brevity, 80's maybes, 1940's Gorilla and Bela site from Hell! So, sit down, and take a load off, pour yourself a cool one, and order up something hot and greasy, because we have a lot of tasty tidbits on the menu, way outside the realm of good taste! If any of the postings just happen to step on anybody's toes, let us know & we will remove them immediately, if not sooner!! We recognize all formal copyrights, and do this solely to support and promote the films featured! This forum is only being presented in a critical and scholarly critique, and should not be construed as anything else. It's just all for Fun & Historical Education in an effort to keep bad taste alive forever!!! If the words and pictures pique your interest, then please go out & buy, or rent the movies, wherever you can find them! All soundclips are approximately two minutes long, or just enough to give you a feel for the movie! When we post a sound clip, it will only stay up 30 days or less! These days, after getting hassled time and time again, we don't even do soundclips much anymore!!

Here are some good places to start your search for hard to find cult films on the internet:

TRASH PALACE!

CULT ACTION!!

When it comes to movies, the name of this site speaks for itself!

1980's CASSETTE CULTURE

Hear What You Missed The First Go Round!

BSC MUSIC

If you would like to hear more amazing music from composers like Peter Thomas and Martin Böttcher, then do yourself a favor and check out BSC Music! There Are Still Places In The World To Buy Cool Music!